Fans of The Late Show are obviously familiar with Stephen Colbert’s many Donald Trump jokes. In fact, if there’s one thing that’s certain about the show, it’s that it’ll have plenty of Trump jokes inspired by the day’s events. On Monday, the host turned it up a notch in his monologue, taking a few hard hits at the president for the way he treated a colleague. His rant was hilarious, but it also rubbed some people the wrong way, and so the #FireColbert campaign was born.
“Welcome to ‘The Late Show.’ I’m your host, Stephen Colbert,” he said, opening Wednesday’s show. “Still? I am still the host? I’m still the host!!”
“Now, if you saw my monologue Monday, you know that I was a little upset at Donald Trump for insulting a friend of mine,” Colbert added. “So at the end of that monologue, I had a few choice insults for the president in return. I don’t regret that. He, I believe, can take care of himself. I have jokes; he has the launch codes. So, it’s a fair fight.
“So while I would do it again, I would change a few words that were cruder than they needed to be. I’m not going to repeat the phrase, but I just want to say for the record, life is short, and anyone who expresses their love for another person, in their own way, is to me, an American hero. I think we can all agree on that. I hope even the president and I can agree on that. Nothing else. But, that.”
So what did Colbert tell Trump on Monday that caused so much controversy? “Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine. You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign language gorilla that got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c**k holster.”
It’s that last remark that sparked the whole thing, because many people saw it as homophobic. Here are both Monday and Wednesday’s monologues, so you can see for yourself:
